vB Easy Archive - P910 and Macintosh: Bottom Line?

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P910 and Macintosh: Bottom Line?
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Posted by: Arejay

Hello everyone.

As of today I am a proud owner of a SE P910a. Ive previously owned the Treo 600 & 650, a few Blackberry models, and most recently a Sidekick II. And I must say, thus far I am very impressed with the p910.

The one downside that I have come across so far is Mac compatibility. Bottom line everyone... is there any way I can install apps, upload mp3's, and sync my contacts with my Apple laptop to my P910??? I desperately want to try out SEVEN's push email app and upload Mp3's but have not figured out a way to connect my phone to my laptop. Ive done a few searches on these forums and have not come up with much.

Please help. Any advice would be very appreciated!

Posted by: SRALPH

I don't know much about Mac's, but aren't there "emulators" type wrapper applications that allow you to run a virtual environment inside them, such as running Windows XP, Outlook and the SE PC Suite? I know one of my colleagues often does Webinars of our Windows based software from a MAC using "Virtual Machine". If you can run the SE Suite and Outlook inside an emulator you could for back up and sync.

You can also use Bluetooth with the Mac (they support USB, no?) to push MP3's and apps from the Apple to the phone. Just get a BT USB adaptor.

Also, Sandisk makes a USB Memory Stick Pro Duo USB card reader which is faster than BT, to "sneaker net" files over from Mac to the Phone and vice versa.

Pure sync between Apple and SE P910? Don't think so though...

Posted by: wr wagon

I run a P910i and a Mac. I f you have bluetooth, you have no problems. Pair the P910 with your computer then use the Send File... dialog sequence accessed from the bluetooth icon in the menu bar to send whatever applications you want. Once on your phone, you will be prompted to open the flip to view the "beamed" message and from there you can install. This is the way all my software has been delivered.

MP3's are another thing all together, though. They will take FOREVER to come across a beam if there are very many of them. You are far better off getting a USB reader for the Memory Stick Pro DUO as noted above and transferring music and/or movies this way.

Virtual PC works, but very badly. I have a dual g5 2GHz and it takes forever to do anything with the phone. I bought an old thinkpad off eBay for $150 and it is faster. So for update service and phone backup, that is the way to go, unfortunately.

iSync will sync phonebook and calendars, but it totally messes up the groupings and your contacts will probably have double information, esp. multiple phone and email. So use that at your own risk. Pretty much the only way I have found to avoid that is to ONLY add contacts on the Mac and then sync them.

Posted by: sempai

I concur, I've been using a P910 (and prior to that a P900) with Macs and any of the complaints I have are not the fault of Sony Ericsson, but Apple's inability to support things adequetely in iSync.

Having said that, putting software onto it has always been a piece of cake - I have never used SE's Windows software to install applications. Why bother? Its a snap to just send it over via Bluetooth.

I have had to dust off the company-issued Thinkpad now and then for firmware upgrades, but other than that, no issues. That Thinkpad has become an /accessory/ for my handset. Either that or doorstop.

I was able to install BlackBerry connect and a lot of other applications right from the Mac, so you shouldn't have any problems.

Posted by: ccrews

Agreed, I just came over from the SKII and use Bluetooth and iSync along with a card reader for the 'big' files.